First, the authorities have gotten serious about charging boats to anchor at Marigot Bay. Second, after anchoring in front of the Tastevin restaurant at Grand Case, a marine police boat came by and asked us to leave because some pilots were complaining about our mast being in the flight path! Mind you, we're not talking about Queen Julianna Airport on the Dutch side of the island — ­ which is notorious for the hairy landings and for 747 takeoffs that blow sunbathers off the beach and into the ocean — but little L'Espérance Airport on the French side that services dinky little planes." You meet the most interesting people out cruising. Take John Everton, who along with his wife Veronica has lived and raised two kids aboard the legendary 50-ft wood ketch Gaucho. While at a bar in the British Virgins, John told us that although he was born in Grinnell, Iowa, he learned to sail in Rangoon, Burma. It turns out that his dad was John F. Kennedy's ambassador to Burma, and young Everton learned to sail when visiting from the boardiing school he attended

ISLA CORTES

IN LATITUDES in the Phillipines. Given his cosmopolitan upbringing, it's no wonder that John didn't marry the 'girl next door', but rather Veronica, a bird from London. The Evertons tell us they had a wonderful cruising season last year, highlighted by a month at North Sound in the British Virgins. "Sometimes we didn't see another boat in the whole Sound," they say, "and the most we ever saw was five boats." To put this into context, North Sound is packed with bareboats and a sprinkling of megayachts during the winter season. But come September, everybody thinks it's too hot and humid. "The weather wasn't bad at all," says 'Roni', "thanks to the ever-present breeze." If threatened by a tropical storm, the couple would have

John of Iowa, the Philippines and Burma, with Veronica of London. They've lived aboard 'Gaucho' for something like 30 years.

quickly retreated to Coral Bay, St. John, in the U.S. Virgins. But there were no such threats. This February wasn't as good as Sepember was for the Evertons and Gaucho, as they were T-boned in the Soper's Hole anchorage by a motorsailing charter cat. "Gaucho was built of good hardwoods, so she'll be fine," says John. Why is Gaucho legendary? She was built in Argentina in 1943 for diplomat Ernesto

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